Stryker Recall Attorney Hip Replacement Implant Lawsuit

DePuy Lawsuit Update

I saw many friends from past hip implant litigations at the first court hearing on the DePuy ASR Hip Implant Litigation in West Palm Beach, Florida on Thursday, January 20, 2011. The DePuy Hip Implant Litigation has been consolidated in a federal multidistrict litigation before Judge David Katz in Toledo, Ohio. However, Judge Katz was hearing cases in West Palm Beach, Florida under a longstanding program in which senior federal judges can serve temporarily in Florida to help the judges down here with their caseloads.
So many lawyers appeared for the hearing that Judge Katz had to move the hearing to a larger courtroom. There were close to one hundred lawyers present for the hearing. Judge Katz described how he intended to handle the litigation and asked lawyers to speak about the composition of the steering committees and about the management of the cases. I suggested to Judge Katz that a geographically diverse steering committee would help with communication between the court and the lawyers and clients throughout the country. The hearing went on for most of the day. Judge Katz spent most of the time listening to lawyers suggestions and opinions about the most effective ways to manage the litigation. I could see that Judge Katz was genuinely interested in the lawyers opinions and comments and took notes throughout the lawyers presentations.
Judge Katz discussed his interest in the importance of settlement discussions as well as the management of the litigation process.
Many of the lawyers that were present that I knew had been active in the prior Sulzer Hip Implant Litigation, the Stryker hip implant litigation, and the Zimmer Durom Cup hip cases. It was encouraging to to me to see so much interest among so many good lawyers in representing consumers who suffered injury from the ASR hips. I think this is a good sign that injured hip implant patients will get a fair hearing in these court cases.